Blow The Scene

Photos: Earth at Voxhall in Denmark

This past Valentine’s Day, Blow The Scene‘s Senior Photographer Dante Torrieri and wife, Vanessa, scouted an Earth performance while visiting Europe. Having just arrived from a 7-hour flight and subsequent 4-hour train ride to the second largest Danish city, Arhus- The pair would eventually arrive at the beautiful Voxhall venue. Chock full of sweaty Danes, Dante described the events saying, “We caught the full set of Black Spirituals who I would describe as moody and mellow post-rock. The modestly full club sounded good and the band had the fans bobbing their heads and tapping their toes.’

Tinymixtapes hailed the duo’s latest effort, Of Deconstruction, saying “By the constant reiteration of small impressionist figures, Zachary James Watkins (bass, electronics) and Marshall Trammell (trap kit) form uniquely modular, non-linear sound roles. Although it’s of no surprise that a duo with roots in electroacoustic improv would incorporate nontraditional elements, Black Spirituals live-compose a musical identity unlike any other..When Trammell’s kit enters the fray, it further complicates things with unconventional, skittering fills, drawing away from the perfect groove at the album’s hypothetical center and toward a place of vague creation.”

Dante continued, “Earth finished the night off- Damn they know how to play a good show. I don’t how a band can keep such a slow tempo, mellow-feel, yet be so fucking heavy. The lighting in the Voxhall was superb and the end result makes me envious that I can’t shoot there regularly. Earth played a healthy amount off their new release, but were sure to pull out some choice and rarely preformed older tracks for the less-visited Danes.”

Seattle’s Earth released their mammoth tenth studio full-length, Primitive And Deadly, through Southern Lord Recordings in September 2014, and immediately upon is release amidst massive international touring of Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Europe and North America, became the highest-selling Earth album to date. The New York Times reviewed Primitive And Deadly, stating, “Now, EARTH is reconciling its two moods, rugged and contemplative, and doing something it hasn’t done since 1996: hire vocalists. Mark Lanegan, once of the Seattle band Screaming Trees, appears on a few tracks, sounding like dread and survival and the white blues; when he sings, you almost feel a crust forming. But the clear-voiced Rabia Shaheen Qazi, of the younger Seattle band Rose Windows, suggests something fresher on ‘From the Zodiacal Light,’ a long song at the record’s tasty heart, essentially a series of long approaches to beautiful choruses, with dark words and uplifting chord changes.” Pitchfork’s grand critique of the album offers, “This is the closest Carlson has ever been to leading a rock band, to fully offloading his exceptional sense of control into a systemic and thorough whole… This might be the beginning of a new EARTH.” The band hit Europe on a massive five-week tour from late January through the end of February, and now continues to tour on Primitive And Deadly in the second half of the year.